A New Year's Plaint Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCD EFEFGHGH FCFIHJHJ KLKLMNMN OBOBPQPR STSTUVUV WXWYZIZC| In words like weeds I'll wrap me o'er | A |
| Like coarsest clothes against the cold | B |
| But that large grief which these enfold | B |
| Is given in outline and no more | C |
| TENNYSON | D |
| - | |
| The bells that lift their yawning throats | E |
| And lolling tongues with wrangling cries | F |
| Flung up in harsh discordant notes | E |
| As though in anger at the skies | F |
| Are filled with echoings replete | G |
| With purest tinkles of delight | H |
| So I would have a something sweet | G |
| Ring in the song I sing to night | H |
| - | |
| As when a blotch of ugly guise | F |
| On some poor artist's naked floor | C |
| Becomes a picture in his eyes | F |
| And he forgets that he is poor | I |
| So I look out upon the night | H |
| That ushers in the dawning year | J |
| And in a vacant blur of light | H |
| I see these fantasies appear | J |
| - | |
| I see a home whose windows gleam | K |
| Like facets of a mighty gem | L |
| That some poor king's distorted dream | K |
| Has fastened in his diadem | L |
| And I behold a throng that reels | M |
| In revelry of dance and mirth | N |
| With hearts of love beneath their heels | M |
| And in their bosoms hearts of earth | N |
| - | |
| O Luxury as false and grand | O |
| As in the mystic tales of old | B |
| When genii answered man's command | O |
| And built of nothing halls of gold | B |
| O Banquet bright with pallid jets | P |
| And tropic blooms and vases caught | Q |
| In palms of naked statuettes | P |
| Ye can not color as ye ought | R |
| - | |
| For crouching in the storm without | S |
| I see the figure of a child | T |
| In little ragged roundabout | S |
| Who stares with eyes that never smiled | T |
| And he in fancy can but taste | U |
| The dainties of the kingly fare | V |
| And pick the crumbs that go to waste | U |
| Where none have learned to kneel in prayer | V |
| - | |
| Go Pride and throw your goblet down | W |
| The 'merry greeting' best appears | X |
| On loving lips that never drown | W |
| Its worth but in the wine of tears | Y |
| Go close your coffers like your hearts | Z |
| And shut your hearts against the poor | I |
| Go strut through all your pretty parts | Z |
| But take the 'Welcome' from your door | C |
James Whitcomb Riley
(1)
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A New Year's Plaint is a poem by James Whitcomb Riley. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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